Over the past few months we’ve spotted several new fake casino apps and related scams surfacing online, and we’ve even seen instances of people giving over personal information and money to them.
Of course, you’ll want to avoid these situations at all costs, and we’re taking the opportunity to write this guide so our readers can stay informed on this tricky subject.
The truth is, it’s not so tricky with SweepsKings as your reference point.
The Spectrum of Illegitimate Gaming Apps and Sites
There’s a range of fake and illegitimate casino sites and apps online, with some presenting themselves in a more convincing manner than others. However, one thing’s for sure: it’s dangerous to sign up and deposit money or purchase any form of credit, and you can easily lose any funds you hand over.
Shady Operators
You might have heard names such as BitBetWin, Bitplay, WebSweeps, Riversweeps, VPower, Vegas X, Lucky Plinko, and Fortune Slots.
In fact, we have a full list of untrustworthy casinos we’ve come across over the years; this is a very handy reference point for anyone who’s unsure about whether to trust a specific app they’ve found.
Many of these sites and apps work in a similar way to how sweepstakes cafes operated in the early 2000s. That’s to say, they often work as aggregators or middlemen, taking your cash deposit and providing access to various other platforms where you can play casino-style games and potentially win money.
There are also similar casinos that may host their own games rather than giving you access to other platforms, but they may be running rigged games too, or simply refusing to payout and fabricating various reasons for this.
In either case, sometimes you may win, and sometimes you may even be able to withdraw your winnings, and this can keep people playing and engaged. But even so, these shady operations can quickly become unreliable, stringing you along with messages and excuses, and ultimately not paying out when it matters.
There might be a downloadable app – maybe even from the Apple or Google app store – but this doesn’t mean you can trust it.
Impersonator Apps and Fake Stores
Then we have also seen completely misleading operations, such as the supposed MrBeast casino app, with adverts that offer guaranteed prizes and win totals. The ads run on legitimate social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube, adding to the confusion.
These ads (often generated with AI or heavily edited to be misleading) can direct you to fake websites created to mimic the design of the Google Play store. Ultimately, either the app functions much like what we described above, or, worse, there’s no app and you’ll simply be conned into handing over personal information or card/PayPal account details. And once your details fall into the hands of scammers, they can be abused or even sold on.
Too-Good-to-Be-True Facebook Wins
Another scam we’ve seen involves Facebook again. Players discover a new casino via a Facebook ad, and they can sign up and play for free. This soon results in them ‘winning’ a huge total (e.g., $30,000), but to upgrade the account and redeem the winnings, the player has to submit a fee of around $100. Of course, upon payment of said fee, the player’s account gets blocked and they never actually receive anything.
You want to avoid all of the above, so let’s move on to how to spot fake casinos so you can protect your finances and personal information.
How to Recognize A Fake or Untrustworthy Casino App
The below tips will help you learn to discern a trustworthy casino platform from an untrustworthy one. Ticking off one of these points doesn’t always mean you’re on a shady site, but in combination with other signals, it can help build up a bigger picture around whether the site is to be trusted. Essentially, if you’re hitting multiple of these points, the answer should be fairly clear.
A need to purchase/deposit: Legitimate sweepstakes casinos will always offer ways to play without the player needing to hand over any cash. This is done via bonuses, including those available on signup, via AMOE, or maybe via daily logins. If a casino is requiring you to deposit to play its games, or even worse, to upgrade your account and redeem a bigger prize, this is a red flag.
Impossible to find a legitimate business linked to it: Legit sweepstakes casinos will always be run by a business that is registered in its country of origin and therefore easy to look up on Google. The company name will often be listed in the footer of the site and in documents like the T&Cs. If you can’t find this kind of information easily, you could well be on a shady platform.
Rigged games: Sometimes you can get a sense that it’s impossible to win at certain casinos or on certain games. Maybe you always finish second, no matter how many times you play, or maybe your balance never goes up, only down. While legitimate sweepstakes casinos provide you with RTP percentages and reliable gameplay mechanisms, unregulated sites and apps can offer games that are simply designed to make you believe you’re close to winning, while bleeding your account dry. If a game offers no information on things like RTP or volatility, and if it feels like you’re being cheated, maybe you are.
Too good to be true: If you encounter an offer or land a win that simply seems too good to be true, it often is. Casinos are businesses at the end of the day, and they do not exist to hand out guaranteed prizes or win totals (as the MrBeast adverts and some Sweet Bonanza/Plinko apps imply).
Lack of terms and conditions: Legitimate platforms will ask you to agree to their T&Cs on signup, and will place a link to the relevant document somewhere easy to access, like the site footer. There should also be other essential documents on topics like player safety and the site privacy policy. Fake casino apps, on the other hand, often skip this entirely, providing little to no legal or safety information. That’s a major red flag.
Unprofessional or non-existent customer support: A quick trick can be to contact customer support before you make a deposit or payment. If they don’t respond promptly or professionally, it’s likely you’ll not get a good service when you actually have a problem. This is not a surefire way to rule out bad sites, because unfortunately even some legitimate sweepstakes casinos have poor customer service. However, it can be one more point to consider when making your judgement.
Sketchy design/UI: If a site looks poorly-designed or doesn’t function well, it’s likely you shouldn’t be using it. Legitimate companies put a lot of time and effort into creating a great-looking, easy-to-use website, whereas shady companies will often cobble something together with little regard for aesthetics or functionality.
Where to Go for Trusted Reviews
The above points will help you decide for yourself whether a new site is to be trusted or not, but a far easier way to make a decision is to trust the experts or source opinions online.
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When legitimate, trustworthy sweepstakes casino apps are available, there’s simply no reason to take risks with shady or outright scammy sites. The potential losses – whether financial, emotional, or even personal data – just aren’t worth it.
At SweepsKings, we’re here to make sure you stay informed and protected. Our goal is to help you enjoy your time online without worrying about being scammed. Stick with verified platforms, and let the fun stay fun.
Author: Joseph Allen
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